Restrictions to combat COVID-19 that forced Australia’s courts to go virtual have had unforseen benefits, and Australia’s top law firms say they don’t want online hearings to be scrapped when social distancing measures are eased.
Domino’s is seeking to strike out portions of the “rolled up, confusing pleading” in a class action over alleged worker underpayments, saying the case cannot be brought under the consumer law.
The High Court will not weigh in on a jurisdictional challenge by the Democratic Republic of East Timor to a lawsuit brought by Australian oil and gas company Lighthouse Corporation over $328 million in alleged losses stemming from a failed fuel supply agreement.
The ACCC has come up short in its appeal of a ruling that dismissed its challenge to Pacific National $205 million acquisition of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal in Queensland, with the Full Federal Court also releasing Pacific National from an undertaking given to the court.
Law firm K&L Gates has been hit with a $3 million lawsuit by former clients alleging breaches of duty of care and fiduciary duties after a Victorian Supreme Court loss in a joint venture dispute.
A date has been set in Domino’s bid to strike out parts of the statement of claim in a class action alleging franchisees underpaid thousands of workers across Australia for five years.
As the COVID-19 crisis leaves tens of thousands unemployed and charities struggling, law firms are responding by offering assistance to those in need through expanded pro bono work and community outreach programs that provide assistance to the country’s most vulnerable people.
A dispute over approximately $466,000 in unpaid legal costs has been sent to the Victorian Supreme Court after DLA Piper admitted it breached its disclosure obligations to a client in a patent case over a laser safety system.
A judge overseeing patent litigation over the painkiller Dynastat has urged the parties to narrow any issues in dispute, saying the excessive amounts of money spent in these types of cases could harm public perception.
The judge who dismissed the ACCC’s challenge to Pacific National’s acquisition of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal in Queensland had no power to accept an undertaking by the rail operator as an answer to the competition regulator’s case, an appeals court has been told.